A lot of us are busy. 12 hour work days and 6 or 7 day work weeks aren’t really that uncommon anymore. That’s why one of my pet peeves is people who bitch excessively about being soooo busy.Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind someone saying, “Man! Things have been busy at the office lately.” That’s fine…and probably a lead-in to an interesting conversation. What I’m talking about are those people who go on and on complaining and sighing about their super-hectic schedule as if no one else on the planet has ever been as busy as they are. You know who I mean.That being said, I have been soooo busy lately. (Sigh!)Kidding, kidding…I did just return from an annual sales conference that was actually pretty good. It was a long week filled with tons of new information, new assignments, some late nights, and a healthy dose of jet lag afterward.Although I got a lot out of the meeting, I had that feeling afterward that you and I both know all too well. That feeling of your brain being filled to capacity. You know those times when you feel as if you could wear out three or four pens and kill a full grown sequoia writing out your to-do list.You don’t know where to start – or how you’ll find the time to get it all done. It just all looks like a giant tangled tumbleweed of confusion.I know that for me, when I feel that way it’s usually not as bad as it looks – and my outlook has more to do with fatigue than anything else.Forcing yourself to take a step or two in the opposite direction of the work that has you all mentally screwed up is a good start.When your schedule is full and your life is moving super-fast, you need physical rest. And you sure as hell need mental rest as well. If you don’t reset a little, you can find yourself having anxiety about all those to-do’s, and possibly making some lousy decisions that “clear-minded” you wouldn’t have made.So when I felt that old familiar clutter-brained feeling setting in this week, I recognized it and made myself walk away from it all. I put the phone and iPad on silent mode and ignored my email all weekend. (Something I almost never do)I sat on the couch with my arm around my wife and watched crappy sitcoms. I got some yard work done. I cleaned my fish tank. I rented a movie with my son. It was wonderful.(I’m a major fish geek. Discus fish to be exact. Don’t get me started.)To you, my pass-times may sound like sound like dental work with no Novocaine, but you get the point. Whatever chills you out and clears your mind, go do those things when you feel overwhelmed.As Chubs said to Happy Gilmore, “Go to your happy place.”He also said, “It’s all in the hips, it’s all in the hips”…but that seems far less relevant here somehow.I’m not suggesting that you blow off a major deadline, but I am saying that taking some time for you, the people you love, and the things you love will clear your mind and rejuvenate you.Make a point to walk away from it all when you feel the need and you’ll find that you’re ready to duke it out again after you do.
